Seeing the Wood for the WarblersPractices, Perceptions and Power driving tree cover change in Pepease, Ghana

A Research Collaboration between the University of Cambridge1 and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds2 (RSPB)PhD Candidate: Clare Bissell1 MSc Email: ceb213@cam.ac.uk

Supervisors: Prof. Bill Adams1 and Dr. Juliet Vickery2

Research ProblemThe RSPB speculates that tree cover change in the transitional forest zoneof West Africa may be a contributing factor underpinning declines in thepopulations of migrant birds, including the wood warbler (Vickery et al2014, Mallord et al 2016). Tree loss is often explained by simplifiednarratives of human population growth, intensified farming practices andillegal logging (Fairhead and Leach 1996). There are misconceptions andgaps in the conservationists’ understanding of local socio-ecologicalsystems and the political, economic and cultural factors which influencehow people manage trees on their land (Mortimore and Adams 1999).

Location

ReferencesFairhead, J. and Leach, M., 1996. Misreading the African landscape: society and ecology in a forest-savannamosaic (Vol. 90). Cambridge University Press.Mallord, J.W., Smith, K.W., Bellamy, P.E., Charman, E.C. and Gregory, R.D., 2016. Are changes in breeding habitatresponsible for recent population changes of long-distance migrant birds?. Bird Study, 63(2), pp.250-261.Mortimore, M. and Adams, W.M., 1999. Working the Sahel: environment and society in northern Nigeria.Routledge;Vickery, J.A., Ewing, S.R., Smith, K.W., Pain, D.J., Bairlein, F., Škorpilová, J. and Gregory, R.D., 2014. The decline ofAfro‐Palaearctic migrants and an assessment of potential causes. Ibis, 156(1), pp.1-22.

Acknowledgements

MethodologyWe combine qualitative and quantitative data collection using householdfarming surveys, semi/unstructured interviews, community meetings,participant observation, and multi-stakeholder workshops. The qualitativeanalysis of data seeks to understand the differential agency, both real andperceived, of individual and grouped participants – for example varioustypes of farmers, government officials (forestry, agriculture) and NGOs.

Map showing the RSPB Field site at Pepease, Kwahu East, in relation to Ghana

Credit: OpenStreetMap.org

Power

Perceptions

Practices

The village name ‘Pepease’ translates as ‘under the Pepea’ tree. This tree is often kept on farmsto provide an oasis of shade for farmers to cook, eat and rest under, as seen in this photograph.

Analysis – Practices, Perceptions and PowerThe multiple drivers of tree cover change can be understood through three interconnected dimensions:Practices: actors living and working in Kwahu East interact with trees in farmland areas in different ways. Practicesthat contribute to tree cover change include farming techniques, tree felling for timber, non-timber forestproducts, land clearance for development, and allocation of land.Perceptions: actors have different perceptions of the drivers of tree cover change, and therefore multiple viewsabout who is responsible and what can be done about it. Perceptions are influenced by dominant narrativesrelating to identity, historical events and the sense of individual, group and collective agency.Power: actors whose livelihoods are most effected by tree cover change often feel least able to address it. Thosewith the most perceived/actual power are limited by broader political complexities. These structures includemarket forces, government policy, climate change, and inequalities relating to identity (e.g. gender, social status).This case study shows that, even at a small scale, the drivers of tree cover change are complex and multi-layered. As such, any intervention intended to address elements of this issue requires a holistic approach.

The research participants from

Kwahu East including farmers, local ministerial

offices, traditional leaders and NGOs

FindingsThis project uses a political ecology case study of a forest-farmingcommunity in Ghana to explore the drivers of tree cover change. Resultssuggest multi-layered and interconnected drivers of change including:• Unsustainable legal and illegal logging• Uneven and market-driven development• Insufficient regulation and enforcement of tree-cutting practices• Commodity demand (timber, cash crops and land)• Uncontrolled (wild)fires• Incompatible land use pressures• Farming and livelihood practices• Unequal distribution of power and representation in decision-making

processes.